Spinning and Weaving...

Awhile back I bought a drop spindle and some fibers from a great store in Paige, Texas called Yarnorama. I loved spinning and knew that I wanted to get a spinning wheel as soon as possible.

However... in case you've never looked into it, spinning wheels are expensive! Well, I let the idea go due to lack of excess money and lack of room for a new piece of furniture and moved on. But from time to time my mom and I still talk about how much fun it would be to have a spinning wheel and during one such talk I had mentioned seeing a few for sale on Craigslist last summer and that we should start keeping an eye out for some in our area.

AN HOUR LATER she comes to me and says that not only did she find one in our area, but she found a 32" loom as well! Both were for sale by the same woman and she was only asking for both items together what the spinning wheel on its own would have cost. I was very excited but knew that I didn't have the money to spend on it... so.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO MEEEEEE from my awesome, wonderful, brilliant parents :-D

I am now the proud owner of an Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel and a Herald 32" 4 Harness Loom!

Here are a few pictures of my new acquisitions.























































And here's a video of me spinning! A few seconds in I have to restart the wheel (cause I'm a noob and I still stink!) and you can see the bunch of fibers in my right hand that will turn into yarn as I spin!



The video lighting isn't that great and the yarn looks kinda dull, so here's a better picture! I'm spinning a 4 oz bunch of bamboo that I got from Yarnorama. Here are the fibers before spinning...

















And here is a picture of how much I have spun so far!!

Trip to the Yarn Store

A few weeks ago my husband celebrated his 29th birthday and his family drove down to spend the weekend with us in honor of the event. Had a great weekend made even better by the fact that I got to introduce my mother-in-law to the joys of knitting and yarn hording!

My mother-in-law had seen me knitting before and thought that she might want to try it out too. So we headed over to the local yarn store in Spring, Twisted Yarns.

They have SO MUCH YARN there, in all colors, sizes, and fibers you can imagine. I think it was almost too much for Julie to handle. She kept darting from one skein to the next; we had a great time!

At one point she turned to me with a big smile on her face and said "Is this what it's like to be a yarn whore??"

Well, an hour later and with several purchases under her belt, we headed home to play with our new yarn.















This is a skein of handspun/hand dyed yarn which is actually a lot more scarlet than purple in real life. I'll be making a drop-stitch scarf out of this.

Julie got two other skeins of yarn for scarves; one that I used on my new knitting machine and the other I'm knitting in a loose garter stitch.





















This is the knitting machine scarf being blocked. It was made with a superwash wool blend by Berroco which you can buy online here.

The last skein of yarn that Julie purchased for me to make her a scarf from was this beautiful Japanese silk!





















She kindly bought me one in scarlet for my efforts! I can't wait to get to it... in the meantime, here is the progress on her scarf. I'm using size 10 needles and a garter stitch to get the effect.

Cables

Well, since I just learned to knit a few months ago, I figured now would be the perfect time to try out one of the harder stitch types! Cables.

In all honesty, I had been wanting to try them for a month or so but was too chicken to try it and fail. But a few weeks ago I taught my mom how to knit and a trip to the yarn store ensued where many books were purchased, including several books on cable patterns.

Mom was SO excited to try cables, and since I was the one who taught her the basic knit stitches, I was the one in charge of learning cables first so that I could walk her through it.

SHOCKINGLY, it was pretty darn simple and fun! Here is the first cable we tried. The Cable Crossing pattern from 50 Fabulous Knit Aran Stitches















So then I naturally went Cable CRAZY and made a few other pieces. Some of which I can't show you yet because they're Christmas gifts... but here is one item that you can check out!





















This is a free pattern from Ravelry called Elegant Cabled Scarf or you can get the PDF directly from her site here. It took about 12 hours total to finish this scarf and it was well worth it, I love it!

Finally back!

Hello all!

I know it's been QUITE a while... but look! I really have been working on things!
















Actually, there is a lot more than this, but I can't post a lot of it due to the fact that they're all Christmas gifts! It's going to get a little tricky as the year progresses to get projects up for y'all to see. I'll try to be as sneaky as possible, but be prepared for a large batch of posts around the first week in January! :-)

Anyway, on to the new stuff!

Getting to Give Away The Gifts

This past weekend my husband Jason and I drove to Austin, Texas to see some friends and while we were there our friends Jeni and Andrew (the a fore mentioned friends who are having a "little geeky baby") were able to meet up with us.

There was delicious pizza and a tour of their new house and then... GIFTS! I had been making tons of things for them every since we had found out about their baby (all of these things have been featured on this very blog even) and I was finally able to give the gifts to them!



































































































Jeni and Andrew are the perfect people to give gifts to; they squeal and exclaim awesomeness at all the right moments :-)

We <3 you Jeni and Andrew... you geeky, geeky parents-to-be you!

BABY SWEATER!!!!!

So, one of our friends is having a baby. A "little geeky baby" to be exact. So I thought I should make her something fitting for that title!

And what better to fit the image of a "little geeky baby" than..... a yoda sweater!

































As you can see, I modified it just a little to have a button instead of a tie. I like it better, but either way it's ADORABLE!

It took about 10 hours total to make and was well worth it. It is just about the cutest thing I have EVER seen! If you make one (and I would really recommend it, it's great) let me know and we'll put a picture of it up.

Molly Weasley Sweater Update #2

I've been working on the body of the sweater for awhile now, in between Christmas projects and whatnot, and I've finally finished the first half which I attached to the sleeves and thought I would share!

I woke my mom up to have her model for y'all... she asked to remain faceless and I obliged :-)





















What do you think? I'd love to here your comments! Hopefully I will get the other half done soon and I'll have a full completed costume update for the next one :-D

Second sock... for the first time

I've made several first socks out of different yarns that I liked, but I've yet to make the second sock for any of the firsts. Until now!

















It's not very far along, but I'm glad to be starting it. Soon I will actually have a pair. I'm so excited! That's all... I just wanted to share :-)

Lace!

Well, not real lace, but teeny tiny crochet that looks like lace.

It's made with mercerized cotton and the tiniest hook I have ever seen. This one took me about an hour and a half the first time I made one. The second took about 45 minutes. I've made 4 so far and hope to get the time down with each one that I make. So far it's working :-)

















So there you go. I love it! I'm thinking of making a pillow and having the lace over a solid color. I really like the way the color shows through! We'll see... a tablecloth would be nice too, but I'm not sure I could make 250 of them and maintain my sanity!

Pattern: Here is the pattern if you would like to attempt one for your very own!

Happy crafting!

Update on the Molly Weasley Sweater

Hey all!

I have an update on the Molly Weasley Sweater! Here are the finished sleeves!!

































Currently they are just pinned to a regular shirt, but I have started making the sweater part and am almost done with the first half of the front! I'm making it in the dark purple color that you see in the sleeves. The original one is pink, but mom wanted purple so that she could wear it all the time instead of just to the movie!

Anyway, that's all the update I have for now. :-)

Happy Crafting!!

One more...

Ok, I have a few more projects to blog about, but I'm tired and so I'm only going to do ONE more for now. And this one... is so amazing to me, I can't believe I made it!

A sock.

An amazing, soft and cuddly, black knitted sock. Modeled here by my husband.
















I had never attempted socks before, but decided to give it a try about a month ago. I failed at creating a summer sock because of the yarn (it was way too thick) but it was a nice around the house sock. Really wanting to make "wearable with regular shoes" type socks, I got some actual sock yarn and tried again with great success!

I found a video series on YouTube for toe-up socks (which makes the most sense to me) and got to work. The videos were really well done and I had no trouble following along.

Here is a link to the first video: Video 1

I only have one done so far, but plan on making many many more very soon!

If you decide to give this a try, send me a picture of your project! I'd love to see what you all are doing too!

Happy crafting!

Just in time for the 4th

One of the many things I'm making for friends and family this year for Christmas was an American flag afghan (which is sooooo soft, I love it!)
















This little beauty only took about 10 hours total and the finished size is 6ft by 4ft. The pattern is one that I made myself and is not really anything special in and of itself, but I wanted a little variation to give the strips some depth.

Rows 1-2: DC across all stitches
Rows 3-5: SC across all stitches
Rows 6-7: DC across all stitches
Change colors and repeat rows 1-7

For the stars I followed a pattern that I found online and then sewed them on top of the blue with a quick whip stitch. I can't find the pattern for the stars again, but it was so easy that I still remember it.

Stars -
Row 1: ch 3. 9 dc in 3rd ch from hook, join round with a slip stitch.
Row 2: ch 5. Slip stitch in first ch from hook, SC in next ch, HDC in next chain, DC in next ch. Skip 1 DC and slip stitch in next.
Repeat row 2 until all 5 points are created.

















Like I said, this was a very quick and fun project and I would highly recommend making your own this year! Happy early 4th of July to all! :-D

Baby Blanket

With pretty much everyone I know having babies I've been making a TON of these lately. Generally I make the same one, it's so cute and so easy that it's been my long time favorite. I'll post about that one next time I make it.

But this time I have a new blanket. This one features 'popcorn hearts' offset by granny squares. I used a green and cream colorway (the green isn't really that dark in real life). Never having attempted popcorns before, because I was a little afraid of them, assuming that they were very difficult, I was a little skeptical about how this blanket would turn out. But, I went for it and much to my surprise, popcorn crochet stitch is unbelievably simple!

Look at how fun they are! (Sorry it's so blurry!)

















I'm sure everyone in the world knew how simple this stitch was, but in case there are some like me who had no clue, I'll give you a super quick rundown.

Working on the wrong side - SC in stitch before the stitch where the popcorn will go. *Working in back loop only, YO pull up loop, pull stitch through 2 loops, YO pull up loop, pull stitch through 2 loops leaving 3 loops on needle. Repeat from * until there are 5 loops on hook, pull stitch through all 5 loops. SC in stitch right after popcorn.

Super easy, super cute!

Here is the finished product! I love it!

Success!

Well, I guess the old adage "wash your car and it will start raining" works for blogs too. As soon as I complained about it, I found the cords I was looking for :-)

I was a so annoyed with losing the cords that I started a new project right after posting about it... Molly Weasley's sweater from the 2nd movie. For the release of the 7th movie my mom decided she would be Mrs. Weasley... and for those of you who know of Mrs. Weasley and who know my mom know that this is a perfect fit! I actually made ridiculous headway while fuming about the lost cords. In just an hour I got this much done...

















Here is a picture of the original for those who haven't seen the movie.


















The yarn I have is pretty cheapo stuff, so I'm going to go and grab some nice soft cotton tomorrow so that the piece will flow right. But for now I just wanted to try out my pattern. Since the only ones I could find where either not faithful to the movie or you had to pay for them, I just decided to make up my own. We'll see how it goes, but I like it so far!

Will update on the sweater with a pattern once it's finished!

Frustrated...

Well... I have tons of projects to show you all, but seemly things are set against me at the moment. First, my computer refused flat out to connect to the internet for about four days, and now I can't seem to get the pictures from my camera to my computer. All of the cords have gone missing!

Here is a breakdown of all the exciting things I have to share...

* 6ft x 4ft American Flag Afghan
* Green and white 'Popcorn hearts' baby blanket
* First perfect toe-up sock attempt!
* Harry Potter mini-sweater Christmas tree ornament
* First attempt at crocheted lace - Victorian Dream Square doily
* Progress report on my first portrait crochet project

But alas, they will all have to wait for the cords to be found. If I don't find them tomorrow, I may breakdown and just go buy a new one! We'll see.

I hope you all are having more luck with your projects than I am with getting mine uploaded :-)

Happy Crafting!

First Knitted Sweater

Well, here it is! My first attempt at knitting...















No, one sleeve it not shorter than the other, it just kinda looks that way from the way I folded it!

I used a very loose version of this pattern. I made it with 3/4 length sleeves and with a standard v-neck instead of that in the actual pattern. I also used a garter stitch instead of the stockinette. So basically, I just used this patten to know when to narrow in for the sleeves!

I thought a little crochet edging might look nice as well, so I used this pattern for the edge of the sleeves and around the bottom edge of the sweater and it turned out really well!















The fit is perfect and all I have to do is tuck in all the loose ends. I love how soft this sweater turned out. The I love this cotton! yarn from Hobby Lobby is excellent and very soft!

That's all for now, I'm starting my portrait crochet project this week and will update as soon as it starts to look like anything recognizable! :-)

Happy Crafting!

Dragon!!

Update: Click here for the pattern! I just realized the link was a little too embedded to see well :-)

Hello all!

I know it's been awhile so I thought I would whip up something extra special to try and make up for it.

I saw this adorable pattern about a month ago and have been dying to make it every since. But with one project or another in the works, I didn't want to have too many things going at once and therefore refrained from making one.

However! I finished the sweater I had been working on this Friday and decided to take the weekend off to make something really fun! So here it is... my dragon!












































I know, I know... it's almost too cute for words, but I'll try :-D

I used Little Britches yarn in Baby Camo with a 5.5mm crochet hook which, looking back, was a little too big. I had never made a crochet stuffed animal before so this was a completely new crocheting experience for me!

Much to my surprise however, it was relatively simple and quick! In total the entire project took about 6 hours. Which I think is pretty darn good for a first time dragon maker!

I still need to embroider the eyes and talons onto the finished dragon, but I was just too excited to show everyone that I couldn't wait to post!

Anyway, I love it and I hope you do too! If you would like to try your hand at making your very own dragon, you can find the pattern that I used here.

Next up: The sweater...
As I mentioned above, I finished my first hand knitted sweater this week! Post and pictures soon to follow :-)

Happy Crafting!

Where did all the TIME go??!!

Wow! I can't believe it's been 10 days since my last post... Things have been ca-razy around here and posting has been out of sight out of mind I suppose.

I have my first hand knitted sweater about 89% done right now! Hoping to finish it tonight actually. I'll try to get pictures and a pattern up asap :-)

Happy crafting!

Harry Potter Sweater and Pattern

For Christmas this year I decided to make my two younger brothers a Harry Potter inspired Weasley sweater. Instead of a W for Weasley I decided to put an M for Moore.

I had never tried color changing with crochet before, and it was a bit tricky, but it worked out really well in the end. I'll talk more about that a little later.

I used this pattern that I found online. It has a really great ribbing technique that turned out amazingly well. After finding the pattern, I used a piece of graph paper to chart out the big M for the middle.

Just recently I found a really great website that will chart an image for you at a 1 square to 1 stitch ratio... it's pretty awesome. knitPro is a great way to chart your pattern without much effort.

The yarn that I used felt very soft when I picked it out... buuuuut, it wasn't for the final product. One yarn that I have fallen in love with is I Love This Cotton yarn brand. It comes in many colors, is available at most hobby and craft stores and is lightweight and very comfortable when crocheted or knitting into a final product.

Anyway, I mentioned changing colors earlier so here is the technique I used with the double crochet stitch for the pattern.



It took about 18 hours per sweater for the entire process, including sewing it together, which I did with a whip stitch on the backloop of each stitch while the pieces were facing each other right side to right side.

All in all I think the sweaters turned out really well, especially for a first attempt! Next time (and yes, I'm sure there will be a next time) I will use the I love this cotton yarn for an even better result!

If you use this pattern to make your own Harry Potter inspired sweater send me a picture here and I will post it! :-)

Happy crafting!

Sneak peek... Portrait Crocheting!












My friend Lee over at Totallee.net got me interested in the idea with her amazing creations shown above. So I have started my first attempt! Which I will show you soon...

Spinning!

A few months ago I found a new hobby... I'm beginning to think that my real hobby is collecting hobbies! :-)

Anyway, I went to the only fiber arts shop I could find anywhere near me which happened to be Yarnorama in Paige Texas. They have SO MUCH for spinning and weaving! It was so much fun.

I grabbed a pound of Cotton fibers and Bamboo fibers. I also purchased my first drop spindle. Total amount spent was only about $30! So I got the spindle home and after about 30 minutes of video instruction thanks to YouTube starting spinning my own yarn!













I have about 10 yards so far of the white cotton and the same for the purple bamboo. So pretty! I can't wait to have enough to knit something. I think I'll get back to it now...

Sneak peek...

Super geeky Harry Potter sweaters coming soon!

Patterns

I plan on putting up patterns for all of the projects that I post so that you can recreate them on your own!

Look for the Family Tree outline very soon. It's fairly large so I'll have to scan it in pieces and then put them back together in Photoshop. So once I get all that done, I'll post it for you to download.

Now back to knitting for me...

Happy crafting!

Family Tree

One of the heirlooms that my parents have hanging, framed on the wall in their home is a piece of very old quilt with many family names on it... almost like a quilted family tree.

It's small though and didn't have any sort of rhyme or reason to it as to how the names fit together. So for Christmas I decided to make a real family tree for my mother. What an undertaking, but it turned out SO well!

I started by designing the tree shape that I wanted on a piece of typing paper, then once it was perfected, I recreated it on a piece of linen by using a water soluble pen such as this:



The piece of fabric with the tree on it ended up fitting into a 36" by 39" frame. I left the leaves off during this first stage so that I could only see the tree itself. I used a medium size oval embroidery hoop and using a basic embroidery stitch worked my way across all of the branch lines. I used black thread for mine, but I think depending on the color of the background fabric, brown would also be nice.

Once all of the tree bits were done, I used the pen again to trace the leaves. I made them fairly large and in three to five leaf clusters. Be sure to leave room on the branches for the name plates. You don't want to cover up your hard work!

Using five complementary fall colors, I went over all of the leaves using the same basic stitch for the outline. I didn't fill the entire leave, but rather did one stitch from the top of the leaf to the base. You can see a close up of this below.



Once the leaves are done I needed to put the names onto the tree. At first I thought I would embroider the names right onto the tree, but you couldn't really see them very well. In the end I found some really great metal scrapbooking plaques and with a little jewelry wire, turned them into hanging name plates. I've seen them at most hobby shops so they should be readily available.

The name plates that I found were bright spring colors, so I painted them black, then sponged bronze onto them once dry. However, now they conveniently come in silver, bronze, gold and black.

I printed the names off on my computer onto acid-free paper and then placed them into the name plates with scrapbooking dots. (I love those!)

Once everything was on the fabric, I nailed the finished piece to a wooden frame and Voila! An heirloom was created.